No more cookies? Not yet! Google has delayed the cookie deprecation in Chrome for the third time – after promising it wouldn’t.
To be honest, the digital industry is not surprised. Despite their assurances, hitting the deadline seemed increasingly unlikely because more time is needed to adequately test Privacy Sandbox solutions.
In its blog, the tech behemonth announced that it would no longer remove third-party cookies in 2004, and didn’t outline a specific deadline for removal.
“We recognize that there are ongoing challenges related to reconciling divergent feedback from the industry, regulators and developers, and will continue to engage closely with the entire ecosystem. It’s also critical that the CMA has sufficient time to review all evidence including results from industry tests, which the CMA has asked market participants to provide by the end of June. Given both of these significant considerations, we will not complete third-party cookie deprecation during the second half of Q4.”
In the meantime, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the main competition regulator in the United Kingdom, identified a series of areas that could raise competition concerns, which relate to the design of the APIs.
Therefore, the CMA asked publishers and ad tech vendors to provide all feedback and results by the end of June.
As you may remember, Google deprecated cookies for 1% of Chrome users globally in January, aiming to test a new feature that limits cross-site tracking and remove remaining competition concerns from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.
“This delay should not be an excuse for the digital advertising industry to be complacent.”
Anthony Katsur, CEO, IAB Tech Lab
Despite this new latest delay, almost every publisher and media owner has come up with a cookieless solution because it’s crucial to highlight that cookie deletion is not synonymous with Google’s Privacy Sandbox.
This change represents an unprecedented opportunity to improve and try new things. Cookieless reflects industry innovation and its ability to embrace the change.
